Cutting through 1.5" oak - the straight way!

Don’t you love when you take on a project, and don’t stop to think how you can accomplish it, technically?!

Here’s my dilemma – doing a desk. The top is 1.5” white oak. I need to do several cut-outs for electronic panels that are to be sunken into the desk – basically, rounded-corner squares, about 14” square, three of them. I need to keep the cut-outs, as they might be put back in one day (so I can’t just rout out a big hole).

My first thought was a jig saw, but I don’t think the blade will stay straight, and I’ll end up with the sides of the cut being somewhat diagonal, unless their is a very rigid blade out there….couldn’t really find anything on Amazon.

A Sawz-All would run into the same problem I believe, and is not very accurate or easy to control.

A router would be nice, with perhaps a 1/4” straight cut bearing bit, so I could use a template? However, a 1/4” is quite a bit of loss in material?

20 replies so far

A track saw has a kerf of 2.2mm, you could do the sides into the corners at full plunge and take out the corners with a jigsaw. I recently got hold of some Festool 14tpi curve cutting jigsaw blades and they leave a super clean cut. If you don’t have a track saw, a thin kerf blade on a circular saw using a guide would do the cuts into the corners as well.

You might just go with the angle of about 10 degrees in the cut out so it will fit back in if you need to put it on again. If you went slow enough with the jig you could do it provided you have a good jigsaw. I cut through 2” hardwood stock all the time with mine without a problem. It does take some sanding to get the lines out.

I have a little Rockwell circular saw with a 3” blade and a laser line that might get through wood that thick. The only other way would be to use some handsaw, but 6/4 oak and a hand saw aint my idea of a good day.

-- A positive attitude will take you much further than positive thinking ever will.

I’m looking at final thickness of 1.5”. I can start out with 1.75” stock, cut the cut-outs at 15 degrees inwards, with the kerf of a bandsaw blade being about 1/16th”. According to my modeling in SketchUp, the cutout should drop about 1/4” into the hole to meet the table. If I then plane the top down to it’s final thickness of 1.5”, the cutout should then be flush.

That is, on paper, anyway….I’ll have to do tests in scrap stock. Oy vey…

I use a Dewalt jig saw and Bosch blades. The low profile, where you grip the motor, saws from Bosch and Ridgid are probably better for the type cut you are wanting to make.

There are some really great blades out there from Bosch. I get mine from HD.You want a thin (front to back) blade for curves. Don’t worry about rigidity. It’s irrelevant if technique is correct.For the straight sides use a wider blade (front to back), if you want, to save wear and tear on the thin ones.The Bosch blades with variable TPI tooth pitch help to make smooth cuts.

The key to a jigsaw staying vertical (or at a specified angle) to the work plane is to use a top quality blade and go slow without applying any side pressure to the blade. We often have a tendency, if the blade is getting off the line to move the saw laterally back toward the line. Don’t do that. You must stop forward motion and swivel the saw around the blade axis to get back on line.

Also, if you jig saw has a setting for orbital action, shift it to non-orbital action. Orbiting makes for a faster cut, but almost guarantees beveled turns.

-- Michael :-{| Don't anthropomorphise your tools, they hate it when you do that.

One thing about using a router bit, especially a 1/4” bit will probably not like going through 1.5” anything, much less white oak. I realize you would be taking a little cut at a time, which would make the process potentially time consuming, but that last little bit would be a lot of stress at the base of the flutes on the bit. I’ve lost more than one bit that way despite taking very light cuts.

any chance to design those openings before gluing up the top and have them as separate small glue ups (basically the top will be glued up with the openings already ‘build-in’ using those smaller glue ups as spacers)?

Might think about doing this with 3/4” oak and laminating 2 pieces together after the cutous have been made. Make the first cuout in the top piece per your original dimensions. Use that as a template for the bottom piece to cut it maybe 1/4” on each side smaller. After laminating, you would have a rabbit of 1/4” around the hole which could support whatever is goin in the hole or the original cutout of the top piece. By the way, white oak can be waterjet cut. That would give you a very precise cutout.

I would use a contrasting wood. Make the hole on the oak, make a template and make fitting pieces with walnut, ebonized oak (a simple matter of brushing a vinegar with eel wool solution, the oak has enough tanning to turn black) etc. This way you can even rout a lip to hold the hole plug. Another way would be to look for pieces of the oak that are similar to the ones in the areas you are making the hole and then fit them.

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